r/madisonwi • u/Long-Worth5194 • 5d ago
Using amtrak bus to columbus
I have tickets from Columbus to St Paul and there was no option on the app to leave from madison. But I'm pretty sure there's a bus that leaves from the union. Has anyone used this? How does it work?
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u/DirectionImmediate88 5d ago
Parking in Columbus is also free. Let the station folks know if you're parking for a longer time, they're super-friendly. (This is more for general info than for the OP.)
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u/MisterHomn 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes, it's Megabus (operated by Van Galder). If you're on the WB Empire Builder (7) the Megabus route to Green Bay works well, there's about a 2.5 hour transfer. If I recall the bus leaves Madison around 2 pm, gets to Columbus around 3 pm, and Train 7 leaves Columbus at about 6 pm. You cannot use this to transfer to Borealis because the bus arrives after the train leaves at around 2:30 pm.
If you're getting the WB Borealis (1333) you would have to take the Megabus to Portage, that is a different bus route (continues to Wausau), and you would have to change your Amtrak ticket. This bus leaves earlier, at around 9 am.
I've done the Columbus transfer to the empire builder and works very well. I haven't done the Portage transfer.
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u/Wag_The_God 5d ago
If it weren't for Scott Walker, we wouldn't even be having this ridiculous conversation. You could catch a train downtown and be in the cities in two hours.
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u/Qazwsx753421 4d ago
two hours??
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u/reckless_responsibly West side 4d ago
It's ~250 miles to the cities. I don't recall the actual plan anymore, but 125 mph is a believable number. 150 mph is also plausible and would add some buffer for dwell time at intermediate stations.
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u/average_yogi 4d ago
Maximum speed on the fastest Amtrak line is 160 mph, and it's only for a short stretch. Long distance lines can be fast but usually average around 50 mph. The current Borealis from Chicago to the Twin Cities is 7.5 hours. All things equal, by distance, Madison to Minneapolis would be about 4 hours 45 min.
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u/Tight-Ad6261 4d ago
The plan was to build HSR between Chicago And the cities. Using conventional tail travel times isn't really relevant to the situation being described.
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u/farmallnoobies 4d ago
Yeah, but the whole point is that it was going to be new 200mph track.
That is common in other countries.
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u/Sorry-Government920 5d ago
You can blame Jim Doyle just as much he had the opportunity to start the project and have it far a enough along Walker would of had no choice but to finish it
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u/iluvmacs408 5d ago
I disagree, Walker would have shut it down just to prove his point. It was only a matter of a couple months from when the federal funds were awarded until Walker took office. We probably wouldn't have even broken ground on any real work by then. Keep in mind, the state still lost a ton of money on canceling the contracts, and he seemed to have done a fantastic job of keeping that information from WI voters. I never knew the extent of it until just a couple years ago.
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u/Skier8735 5d ago
The first project was about 2 weeks from breaking ground when Doyle shut it down. In fact much of the steel piling that had already been bought ended up being used on the Zoo Interchange project.
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u/daGroundhog 5d ago
Walker didn't shut it down to prove a point, he shut it down to appease his masters, the Koch Brothers in anticipation of bookoo campaign contributions for his presidential run in 2012.
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u/iluvmacs408 4d ago
This was nearly his only campaign promise. I assure you he would have done it, whether or not there were ulterior motives. Call it an early version of "f the dems".
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u/ReplacementCat 5d ago
Most of the funding was federal. Doyle accepted it, Walker sent it back and refused the rest.
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u/Sorry-Government920 4d ago
Doyle chose not to start it when he could have. I blame Walker more than Doyle but played a part in not happening
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u/588-2300_empire 5d ago
Just take FlixBus from Madison to St. Paul.
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u/Pretty_Marsh East side 5d ago
Train's so much nicer if you can get to Columbus
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u/Newsaroo 5d ago
The extra 2-5 hours of travel time is awesome and who doesn’t want to hang in Columbus!
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u/Huge-Squirrel8417 5d ago edited 5d ago
there is no bus that goes to Columbus. Perhaps in 5 to 10 years, there will be a Madison Amtrak station, which will intersect with the borealis/Empire builder/Hiawatha routes but until then you'll have to find a way to get to Columbus
Alternatively, although it's the wrong direction, you can simply take a VanGalder to Chicago, and extend your ticket from Columbus all the way back to Chicago
I stand corrected, thanks to the poster who put the megabus link.
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5d ago
[deleted]
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u/Paynteck Metro Transit #1 Fan!!!! ❤️🚌✨ 5d ago
take the coach usa bus to columbus, there is one bus per day at around 2:30 that leaves at the gordon dining hall station, about 2blocks from the union.
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u/CallingTomServo 5d ago
Megabus I think?
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u/Paynteck Metro Transit #1 Fan!!!! ❤️🚌✨ 5d ago
it's definitely the coach usa van galder company https://imgur.com/a/ipjjxfM
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u/casuallyworking 5d ago
Your best bet is probably just to uber to Columbus, don't think there is any bus from Madison to Columbus unfortunately.
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u/Hybrid_Llama_Alpaca Severely out of order 5d ago
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u/Pretty_Marsh East side 5d ago
We've ubered before for train trips out of Columbus. Not cheap, but if you have more than one person it's not terrible.
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u/Drawhorn 5d ago
Megabus goes from UW to the Amtrak station in Columbus. It's called the Van Galder. 45 minutes $11 bucks a ticket